Nov 10, 2014

There’s a small percent of people that have ever heard about Vivo, but that’s about to change as the Chinese company will certainly make headlines in the next couple of weeks with its new product.

The so-called Xplay 5S is an impossibly thin smartphone that has yet to be officially confirmed by Chinese handset maker Vivo. The same company that announced the first handset to pack a Quad HD display is not back with what appears to be the world’s slimmest smartphone. Unlike the Oppo R5, which has been confirmed to be only 4.85mm thin, the unannounced Vivo Xplay 5s will be only 3.94mm thick. That’s thinner than the Vivo X5 Max, which was recently spotted at TENAA and measures 4.75mm. Well, not many customers would be willing to go with such a thin smartphone, which is why Vivo upped the game by adding a few top-notch specs that would make the Vivo Xplay 5S an interesting device, not just the slimmest on the market.

For example, GizChina reports Vivo’s upcoming smartphone is expected to boast an incredible 6-inch Quad HD display that supports 1440 x 2560 pixels resolution. In addition, Vivo’s PR team let it slip that the smartphone would be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chipset, but it could very well be equipped with a Snapdragon 805 CPU as well.

Some of the Vivo Xplay 5S specs may have been exaggerated

Given the previous history of Vivo’s PR team, it’s hard to confirm that the pictures that leaked recently, along with details about the phone’s specs, could be legit. Which is why we strongly recommend our readers to take this piece of information with a grain of salt until the smartphone actually goes official. Moving on to the rest of the Xplay 5S’ specs, the smartphone is said to pack 3G of RAM and a 13-megapixel camera on the back, which features autofocus and LED flash. These are the most likely specs Vivo’s flagship handset could pack inside, but it remains to be seen what chipset it will run and if will be only 3.94mm thin.

Last but not least, the Xplay 5S is said to be powered by a high-capacity 3500 mAh battery, which should counter the high amount of energy the large Quad HD display usually requires. This isn’t the only Vivo smartphone leaked in the last couple of weeks. An unannounced Vivo Xplay X5 Maxx popped up online as well with similar hardware, which is why we think there may be some mixed specs between the two.

Motorola newest flagship smartphone, the DROID Turbo, has already been confirmed for a worldwide rollout under a different name, but what about the company’s budget-friendly lineup?

The Moto G are among the most popular Android smartphones Motorola launched in the last few years and Motorola is not going to miss any opportunities to boost awareness around its mid-range handsets. So, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if Motorola launched yet another Moto G smartphone in the next couple of months. On the contrary, this is pretty obvious, so the only thing that we need to learn before the new smartphone is made official is what specs it will be packed with. Motorola fans will be pleased to know that the first possible specs of the next Moto G smartphone haves just been spotted by the folks over at Tom's Hardware in Geekbench benchmark. Unfortunately, the name of the device isn’t mentioned, but judging by the specs listed, it could only be a Moto G model.

This is one of Qualcomm’s first 64-bit chipsets, and despite the fact that Google is trying to enforce the use of these 64-bit CPUs for its Lollipop OS, the next Moto G smartphone will run Android 4.4.4 KitKat operating system out of the box. However, there’s a chance that Motorola hasn’t been able to put the newest version of Android on the prototype, but by the time the new Moto G is announced, the US-based company may be able to include Lollipop from the beginning. If not, the yet-to-be-unveiled Moto G will surely receive an Android 5.0 Lollipop upgrade soon after release. Speaking of releasing the leaked mid-range smartphone, we don’t have any details on when exactly the smartphone may be launched, but it would be a great deal if Motorola were able to make it available just in time for the holidays.

Aside from the 64-bit chipset, the amount of RAM included and the OS it runs on, no other details on the Moto G appear in the benchmark. Still, since this is the first leak of the alleged new Moto G smartphone, we expect more info to emerge in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more updates on the matter if you’re interested in Motorola’s upcoming mid-range handset.

Remember LG, the company that launched decent high-end smartphones and forgot to deliver major OS updates on time? Well, it looks like that company is here no more, but it emerges as a new one, close to achieving something that we thought only Motorola, Google or HTC would be capable of.

In a surprising move, LG Mobile officially announced that it would start rolling out the highly anticipated Android 5.0 Lollipop update for its flagship smartphone, the G3, this week. The South Korean handset maker confirmed the upgrade for LG G3 smartphones woukd start in Poland sometime this week, to be followed by other important markets in the near future. Unfortunately, it’s unclear how long it will take for the update to hit other countries, but from what we understand this is a staged rollout so it may last till the end of the year. In addition to the announcement regarding the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for the G3, LG also confirmed it would announce which devices would receive the upgrade and when it becomes available in local markets.

Although the announcement may surprise some, this is not the first time we hear about LG G3 and Android 5.0 Lollipop. Late last week, a few screenshots of the Android 5.0 Lollipop running on the LG G3 leaked online. “LG is absolutely committed to giving our customers the best mobile experiences available and bringing Android Lollipop to G3 owners as soon as possible is a top priority. The new features and improvements in Android 5.0 will bring a whole new user experience to the G3 and make it even better than it already is,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of the LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company.

LG also confirmed more devices would receive the update in the near future

The real surprise is the fact that LG will be able to provide G3 users with an update so soon after Google offered the final version of Lollipop to OEMs. It will be interesting to see whether or not LG will start the rollout of the Android 5.0 Lollipop upgrade for the G3 ahead of Nexus 6’s release on the market, which is scheduled for November 12. Google’s flagship smartphone has been delayed for more than a week due to a critical bug related to the Wi-Fi connectivity. However, Google’s engineers managed to patch the issue last week, only a few days after it was discovered. All in all, this is not the first time that LG promised to bring a major update to one of its high-end smartphones, so let’s hope the company will deliver on that promise.